1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle steering column module having a lever switch and an electronics unit in which the lever switch includes primary switching elements at its end next to a steering column which are actuated by pivoting the lever switch and secondary switching elements at its end away from the steering column which are actuated by control elements located at that location and in which the electronics unit is electrically connected to the vehicle onboard electrical system and to the switching elements.
2. Background Art
A steering column module in a vehicle implements various functions such as travel direction display, washer-wiper processes, signal transmission, steering angle detection, etc. As such, a steering column module includes various functional components such as a spring cassette for supplying power and transmitting signals to the steering wheel, a steering angle sensor for detecting the steering angle, and lever switches associated with various operating functions such as turn signal indicator, light switching, windshield wiping/washing, etc. Another functional component such as an electronics unit contains output, evaluation, and control electronics for the other functional components. The electronics unit connects the other functional components to an onboard electrical system of the vehicle.
DE 101 08 377 C1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,219) describes a steering column module in which lever switches and other functional components are electrically connected to an onboard electrical system via an electronics unit. The electrical connection of the functional components to the electronics unit is achieved by plug-in connectors which engage with one another when an associated housing is joined together. Because of the variation in housing shapes of the functional components, plug-in connectors which are complicated and correspondingly expensive to manufacture may be required. In addition, for many functional components there is little clearance space for positioning the plug-in connectors. Consequently, full use of the installation space on the printed circuit board of the electronics unit is not made.